Meet the Commanding Officer

Captain Joshua Burch

Captain Joshua Burch assumed command of Training Center Petaluma in July 2025 after completing an assignment as the Coast Guard Liaison Officer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. In this role he managed maritime homeland defense policy, interagency response to global maritime threats to U.S. shipping, countering unmanned systems within the homeland, and coordinating efforts between the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard for maritime security events.

Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Captain Burch is a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine and Environmental Science. He later earned a Master of Science in Instructional Systems from The Pennsylvania State University in 2011.

Captain Burch is a career Cutterman with over 10 years of service at sea. He served as the Commanding Officer of both USCGC DEPENDABLE in Virginia Beach, Virginia and USCGC OCRACOKE in St. Petersburg, Florida. His other operational assignments include Executive Officer of USCGC VIGOROUS and two additional tours on the USCGC DEPENDABLE, as the Operations Officer and a Deck Watch Officer, when it was homeported in Cape May, New Jersey.

Captain Burch’s staff assignments include Division Chief of the Maritime Law Enforcement Policy and Standards Division (CG-MLE-2) as well as Training Manager in the Force Readiness Command Training Operations Division (FC-Tot), both in Washington, D.C. He also served as a Search and Rescue controller in the joint Coast Guard Atlantic Area and Coast Guard District 5 Command Center.